Abkhazia’s government in exile to have a new head
Ruslan Abashidze will be the new head of the legitimate Government of Abkhazia, which is in exile in Tbilisi. Photo: State Ministry for Reconciliation and Civic Equality
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The legitimate Government of Abkhazia, which is in exile in Tbilisi, will now be headed by Ruslan Abashidze, replacing Vakhtang Kolbaia.
Abashidze was the First Deputy State Minister for Reconciliation and Civic Equality of Georgia since January 2019.
In 2015-2018 he managed Primera Gold and Residence, after serving at different positions at the Foreign Ministry in 1996-2014.
The new acting head will name his cabinet members and present his action plan in coming days.
His main message to Abkhaz people will be the call for unification, as Abashidze stated.
- Abkhazia, which is one of Georgia’s occupied regions, calls itself an independent state. Its status is recognised by five countries only; Russia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Nauru and Syria.
- The Georgian Government and majority of international community consider Abkhazia as part of Georgia, although the country is not currently in control of its region.
Thirty-six graves are planned to be opened in Georgia’s occupied Abkhazia region, in western Georgia this year to take DNA samples and try to identify the individuals.
The bodies of 12 people who went missing as a result of the military conflicts of the 1990s in Georgia have been laid to rest. Seven of them were fighters, one was a volunteer and four were civilians.
The Government of Georgia has proposed legislative changes for improving the humanitarian, social and economic conditions of the populations in Georgia’s Russian-occupied regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali (South Ossetia).
The aim of the initiative is to improve cooperation across the occupation line.
On this day 25 years ago hundreds of thousands of Georgians were forced to leave their homes in Georgia's western breakaway Abkhazia region, thousands of people died and Tbilisi lost control of Abkhazia region.
Forty graves will be exhumed in Georgia’s occupied region of Abkhazia in the west of the country to take DNA samples and to try to identify the individuals buried there, reports the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).